involve definition | Dictionary.com

in⋅volve

[in-volv]

–verb (used with object), -volved, -volv⋅ing.

1.	to include as a necessary circumstance, condition, or consequence; imply; entail: This job involves long hours and hard work.

2.	to engage or employ.

3.	to affect, as something within the scope of operation.

4.	to include, contain, or comprehend within itself or its scope.

5.	to bring into an intricate or complicated form or condition.

6.	to bring into difficulties (usually fol. by with): a plot to involve one nation in a war with another.

7.	to cause to be troublesomely associated or concerned, as in something embarrassing or unfavorable: Don't involve me in your quarrel!

8.	to combine inextricably (usually fol. by with).

9.	to implicate, as in guilt or crime, or in any matter or affair.

10.	to engage the interests or emotions or commitment of: to become involved in the disarmament movement; to become involved with another woman.

11.	to preoccupy or absorb fully (usually used passively or reflexively): You are much too involved with the problem to see it clearly.

12.	to envelop or enfold, as if with a wrapping.

13.	to swallow up, engulf, or overwhelm.

14.

a.	Archaic. to roll, surround, or shroud, as in a wrapping.

b.	to roll up on itself; wind spirally; coil; wreathe.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME involven < L involvere to roll in or up, equiv. to in- in- ² + volvere to roll; see revolve

Related forms:

in⋅volve⋅ment, noun

in⋅volv⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
1. necessitate, require, demand. 6, 7, 9. Involve, entangle, implicate imply getting a person connected or bound up with something from which it is difficult to extricate himself or herself. To involve is to bring more or less deeply into something, esp. of a complicated, embarrassing, or troublesome nature: to involve someone in debt. To entangle (usually passive or reflexive) is to involve so deeply in a tangle as to confuse and make helpless: to entangle oneself in a mass of contradictory statements. To implicate is to connect a person with something discreditable or wrong: implicated in a plot.

Antonyms:
7. extricate.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To involve

in·volve (ĭn-vŏlv')

tr.v. in·volved, in·volv·ing, in·volves

To contain as a part; include.
To have as a necessary feature or consequence; entail: was told that the job would involve travel. See Synonyms at include.
To engage as a participant; embroil: involved the bystanders in his dispute with the police.
1. To connect closely and often incriminatingly; implicate: evidence that involved the governor in the scandal.
2. To influence or affect: The matter is serious because it involves your reputation.
To occupy or engage the interest of: a story that completely involved me for the rest of the evening.
To make complex or intricate; complicate.
To wrap; envelop: a castle that was involved in mist.
Archaic To wind or coil about.

[Middle English involven, from Latin involvere, to enwrap : in-, in; see in-² + volvere, to roll, turn; see wel-² in Indo-European roots.]
in·volve'ment n., in·volv'er n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Involve

In*volve"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Involved; p. pr. & vb. n. Involving.] [L. involvere, involutum, to roll about, wrap up; pref. in- in + volvere to roll: cf. OF. involver. See Voluble, and cf. Involute.]

1. To roll or fold up; to wind round; to entwine.

Some of serpent kind . . . involved Their snaky folds. --Milton.

2. To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide; to involve in darkness or obscurity.

And leave a sing[`e]d bottom all involved With stench and smoke. --Milton.

3. To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure. "Involved discourses." --Locke.

4. To connect with something as a natural or logical consequence or effect; to include necessarily; to imply.

He knows His end with mine involved. --Milton.

The contrary necessarily involves a contradiction. --Tillotson.

5. To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to blend or merge. [R.]

The gathering number, as it moves along, Involves a vast involuntary throng. --Pope.

Earth with hell To mingle and involve. --Milton.

6. To envelop, infold, entangle, or embarrass; as, to involve a person in debt or misery.

7. To engage thoroughly; to occupy, employ, or absorb. "Involved in a deep study." --Sir W. Scott.

8. (Math.) To raise to any assigned power; to multiply, as a quantity, into itself a given number of times; as, a quantity involved to the third or fourth power.

Syn: To imply; include; implicate; complicate; entangle; embarrass; overwhelm.

Usage: To Involve, Imply. Imply is opposed to express, or set forth; thus, an implied engagement is one fairly to be understood from the words used or the circumstances of the case, though not set forth in form. Involve goes beyond the mere interpretation of things into their necessary relations; and hence, if one thing involves another, it so contains it that the two must go together by an indissoluble connection. War, for example, involves wide spread misery and death; the premises of a syllogism involve the conclusion.

Language Translation for : involve

Spanish: suponer, implicar,

German: einschließen,

Japanese: 伴う

More Translations »

involve

1382, from L. involvere "entangle, envelop," lit. "roll into," from in- "in" + volvere "to roll" (see vulva). Originally "envelop, surround," sense of "take in, include" first recorded 1605. Involved "complicated" is from 1643.

Main Entry: in·volve
Pronunciation: in-'välv, -'volv also -'väv or-'vov
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms:in·volved; in·volv·ing
: to affect with a disease or condition : include in an area of damage, trauma, or insult involved in the proliferative process> involved the trigeminal nerve> involved patients were isolated> involved themuscles>

involve

see get involved with.

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